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Olivia Wilde
Olivia Jane Cockburn (born March 10, 1984), known professionally as Olivia Wilde, is an American actress who has appeared in a number of television and film productions. Wilde has starred in TV productions such as The O.C., The Black Donnellys and House, and in films such as Tron: Legacy, Cowboys & Aliens, In Time, and Drinking Buddies. Early life Wilde was born in New York City. Her mother, Leslie Cockburn (née Redlich), is an American-born 60 Minutes producer and journalist. Her father, Andrew Cockburn, a journalist, was born in London to British parents and raised in Ireland; her uncles, Alexander Cockburn and Patrick Cockburn, also worked as journalists. Wilde's older sister, Chloe Cockburn, is a civil rights attorney in New York; her aunt, Sarah Caudwell, was a writer, and her paternal grandfather, Claud Cockburn, was a novelist and journalist. Wilde's father's upper-class British ancestors lived in several places at the height of British Empire, including Peking (where her paternal grandfather was born), Calcutta, Bombay, Cairo and Tasmania (one of her paternal great-great-grandfathers, Henry Arthur Blake, was Governor of Hong Kong). Wilde's father's ancestors include abolitionist and Anglican minister James Ramsay, politician George Arbuthnot, lawyer, judge, and literary figure Lord Cockbury, Lord Provost of Edinburgh Sir William Arbuthnot, and Sir Thomas Osborne. Wilde's ancestry includes English, Irish, Scottish, Manx, and German; she is also of 1/64th Sephardi Jewish descent (from Spain and Portugal) through Ralph Bernal (1783–1854), a British Whig politician and actor. http://ethnicelebs.com/olivia-wilde Wilde has said that as a result of her parents' occupations, she has a "strong journalistic streak," being "really critical and analytical. Both her parents were prominent in the Washington social scene, hosting dinner parties. Her mother once recounted a story of a four-year-old Wilde eavesdropping one night on a conversation between diplomat Richard Holbrooke and singer Mick Jagger, until Jagger noticed her and shooed her to bed. She has wanted to become an actress since the age of two. For a short time, Wilde's family had a house in Guilford, Vermont. She attended Georgetown Day School in Washington, D.C., as well as Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, graduating in 2002. She also studied acting at the Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin, Ireland. Wilde had writer Christopher Hitchens as a babysitter. Career She has appeared in the movies The Girl Next Door, Alpha Dog, Conversations with Other Women and Turistas. She became known for her role on The O.C. as Alex Kelly, although she originally auditioned for the role of Marissa Cooper. She has also appeared in the Dashboard Confessional music video for "Stolen", and the French Kicks music video for "So Far We Are". In 2007, Wilde was a part of the ensemble cast of the short-lived NBC mid-season drama The Black Donnellys. Her character, Jenny Reilly, was a principal female character in the series following the lives of an Irish-American family tied to organized crime in New York City. Also in 2007, Wilde appeared in the play Beauty on the Vine, a political thriller, playing three different characters. Wilde joined the cast of the Fox medical drama House in September 2007, making her first appearance the episode "The Right Stuff". She played a secretive and bisexual young internist with Huntington's disease, Dr. Remy Hadley, nicknamed Thirteen, who was handpicked by House out of a number of applicants to join his team. Wilde told ''Star'' magazine how she sometimes took cues from her character even when she was not working, saying, "I'm now convinced that I'm a doctor. I mean, if someone says they have a pain, I'm like, 'Well, that's your spleen.'"Star Magazine December 8, 2008 p.96 On October 7, 2008, Wilde appeared in a video on funnyordie.com showing how much she enjoys registering early for the 2008 Presidential election, "Olivia Wilde Does It Early"."OLIVIA WILDE DOES IT EARLY". FunnyOrdie.com. Retrieved April 12, 2011. She appeared in the 2009 comedy film Year One. She played Quorra in Disney's Tron: Legacy, which opened on December 17, 2010. In the December 2010/January 2011 issue of Details Wilde was quoted as saying she panicked the first time she saw her costume for the movie: "I saw the boobs on the suit and I said, 'Oh hell no. I'm doing kicks and backflips in this thing? She also reprised her role as Quorra in Tron: Uprising in the episode "Isolated". She was seen in flashbacks of Paige's past, where she befriended Quorra, not knowing that she was an ISO (isomorphic algorithm) at the time. Wilde played Ella Swenson in the science fiction Western film Cowboys & Aliens. Her character works with Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig), and Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford), to save their town from evil aliens. Wilde played Sabrina McKay in the comedy film The Change-Up. Her character is the love interest of Mitch Planko, who was played by Ryan Reynolds. In January 2011, it was announced that Wilde was cast alongside Chris Pine in the film People Like Us, released in June 2012. In August 2011, it was announced Wilde would be leaving House to pursue her film career. Wilde left House a few months later, in the episode "Charity Case". In May 2012, Wilde returned to House for the final two episodes, "Holding On" and "Everybody Dies". The New York Observer has described Wilde as having a "throaty voice" and the "wide, teal-eyed charisma of Hollywood in the days of yore". She has cited Meryl Streep, Sigourney Weaver, Frances McDormand, Catherine Keener and Robin Wright Penn as acting inspirations. She won the 2006 US Comedy Arts Festival Film Discovery Jury Award for Best Actress for Bickford Shmeckler's Cool Ideas (2006), and in 2008 at the Teen Choice Awards, she was nominated for the Teen Choice Award for Choice TV Breakout Star Female for House. Also in 2008, Wilde was honored alongside Jesse Eisenberg with the Vail Film Festival Rising Star Award. On September 24, 2013, Variety and Entertainment Weekly reported that Wilde will guest voice-star in the long-running adult animated series American Dad!, the episode slated to air as part of the show's 10th season (2013–14). In February 2014, it was announced that Wilde will star and produce in the thriller Meadowland directed by Reed Morano from a script by Chris Rossi.http://www.deadline.com/2014/02/olivia-wilde-meadowland-movie-reed-morano/ Personal life Wilde has dual citizenship in the United States and Ireland. She derived her stage name "Wilde" from Irish author Oscar Wilde. She changed her surname while in high school, to honor the writers in her family, many of whom used pen names. She is a vegan, and was voted PETA's Sexiest Vegetarian Celebrity of 2010.Neil Katz, "Sexiest Vegetarian: Olivia Wilde Wins PETA Prize," CBSNews July 2, 2010. Relationships On June 7, 2003, Wilde married Tao Ruspoli, an Italian filmmaker and musician, whose family owns a famed palazzo in Italy, Becca Hyman. "Olivia Wilde – She's Wild About Hugh Laurie, Classic Cars and Her Husband – a Real-Life Prince!. People (November 12, 2007). Retrieved January 28, 2009. in Washington, Virginia, on a school bus with only a pair of witnesses, when she was nineteen years old. She later said the marriage occurred in an abandoned school bus because it was the only place where they could be completely alone, as the marriage was a secret at the time. On February 8, 2011, she and her husband announced that they were separating. Wilde filed for divorce in Los Angeles County Superior Court on March 3, 2011, citing "irreconcilable differences". The divorce was finalized on September 29, 2011. Wilde did not seek spousal support, and the pair reached a private agreement on property division. Wilde began dating actor Jason Sudeikis in November 2011, and they became engaged in January 2013. In October 2013, it was announced that the couple is expecting their first child. Wilde revealed in January 2014 that her due date is May 4 and that she and Sudeikis are expecting a boy. http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/olivia-wilde-boy-jason-sudeikis/story?id=21508771 Political activism Wilde is a board member of Artists for Peace and Justice, which provides education and health services in Haiti, and the ACLU of Southern California. Previously, Wilde was a supporter of the youth voter organization, 18 in '08. She serves on their advisory council and appeared in a public service announcement that debuted June 30, 2008. In 2008, Wilde campaigned with actors Justin Long and her then-current House castmate Kal Penn for the 2008 Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama. She also appeared in the MoveOn.org mock-PSA "supporting" the rights of the healthcare insurance industry."Protect Insurance Companies PSA". FunnyOrdie.com. Retrieved April 12, 2011. She also appeared in the Global Poverty Project."Olivia Wilde To Appear At Global Citizen Festival" Wilde was commended by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a farmworkers' union, for supporting the Fair Foods campaign.Coalition of Immokalee Workers In 2013, she appeared in a video clip for Gucci's "Chime for Change" campaign that aims to raise funds and awareness of women's issues in terms of education, health, and justice. Vogue]]|accessdate=April 22, 2013|date=April 16, 2013}} Filmography Film Television Video games Awards and nominations Trivia * She's 5' 7" tall. * Has a dog named Paco who, as of July 26, 2006, is the new mascot for Old Navy. * She is a vegan. * Once won a pancake eating contest while in Australia. * One of Olivia's favorite things is an autograph and quote from Steven Spielberg that reads "If you want to be a doctor, look before you leap. If you want to be in show business, leap before you look." * A lifelong lover of classic cars, she owns a 1958 Chevy Biscayne and a 1959 Thunderbird convertible. Once owned a 1966 Lincoln Continental. * She had a childhood ambition to work as a magician's assistant and be sawed in half. She later said that this was one of the reasons for her deciding to accept the role of Jane in The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, as the script included a scene in which she would be sawed in half. * She is a natural blond. * Mick Jagger was once her parents' dinner guest at their Washington, D.C. home, and she had an impromptu brownie-eating contest with Chris Farley when, at age 10, she visited the set of Saturday Night Live. * She had her ears pierced at the age of 11, and got a tattoo on her wrist when she was 13. * She lost out to French actress Eva Green for the role of Vesper Lynd, the Bond Girl in the 2006 Bond film Casino Royale. Quotes * When people saw The Black Donnellys, they didn't know it was the same girl from The O.C.. I'm a natural blonde, but I feel like a brunette. I feel like people treat me now how I should be treated. People used to be shocked, when I was blond, that I wasn't stupid. I used to get these comments that I swear people thought were compliments. Like, "Oh! You're smart."--like they couldn't believe it. * Trying to find this industry's tendency to celebrate the physical is a waste of time. So I'm happy to play the game. But I am also thirsty for input. I'm not a dunce whose only skill is knowing how to take a photograph, you know? And at the end of the day I think it makes me slightly less replaceable. * (On her marriage, at age 19) It was a great eight years, but it was time for both of us to move. * (On TRON: Legacy) It was an effort to get into that suit, but if I was a real astronaut I wouldn't expect that to be easy either. It's all part of the process, it's a challenge and that is what creates the rewards. * I loved magic as a kid! I used to have a magician at every single birthday party. I'm the easiest audience member as I just love to be amazed. I always used to hope that they'd get me up on the stage and saw me in half - especially after one of them sawed my sister in half - but they never did. * I wanted to be on Saturday Night Live as a cast member. So I went to my mom at ten years old and said, "This is what I want.". And she said, "Great, well, you're going to have to go to Second City and you're going to have to audition.". And she took me seriously. And I think that's what always kind of helped propel me and take myself seriously is that I had supportive parents that were in no way pressuring me to do anything. But if I declared that I wanted something, they took me seriously. And that is often what it takes when you decide to be an artist. * (On her character in Cowboys & Aliens (2011)) I liked that she is a strong character. Ella is brave and mysterious and resilient and can hold her own against the men. * I've worked with a lot of the greatest guys in the business, and now I am slowly working with more and more women. We don't really get to work together, the girls, so much. * I feel like the luckiest child in the world because I got to grow up in Ireland. In summer is when you really grow up. During the year, I would go back to the States, and all year long really couldn't wait to get back to Ardmore. I love the landscape, the cliff walks, the smell, the freezing cold water, the music... Do I sound like some soppy romantic? I even love the food. People always laugh at me when I say that. People in Ardmore would say, "Oh isn't living in America cool--you live in a big city, you get to be close to all these things we only see on TV.", but I found Ireland much more inspiring as a kid, much more fun, and the people had such an amazing effect on me, and I credit a lot of my growth as a child and a lot of my happiness with the people I was surrounded by in Ireland. * Once I took a bus from my home in Maryland to Philadelphia to live on the streets with some musicians for a few weeks, and then my parents sent me to boarding school at Andover to shape me up. * (about Hugh Laurie) He's so talented and sexy. And he's Stuart Little's dad! I'll pass him and be desperate to say something but can't think of anything, so I just kind of mumble and walk away. It's so awkward. * (On learning to perform magic for The Incredible Burt Wonderstone) I really enjoyed learning all of the magic tricks I had to perform. The close-up slight-of-hand stuff was fun to learn, but the bit I really loved the most was being sawed in half. I think it's every young girl's fantasy to be a glamorous magician's assistant and climb into the box to be sawed in half - I know it was always mine. So I was really excited the first day we were going to rehearse it and couldn't wait to get in the box. I thought beforehand that it was going to be the old traditional wooden box and handsaw, so I was speechless when they told me that there wasn't any box at all and I'd be completely uncovered all the time, and that they were using a huge circular saw to cut me in half. It was amazing to feel the saw go through me, but I was absolutely blown away when they showed me the video afterwards and I could see myself lying there quite clearly in two pieces. * (On the process of getting her role in The Incredible Burt Wonderstone) I fought hard, I auditioned, I learned how to be sawed in half, but I didn't think I was going to get it. I thought they would hire a real comedian, but it's such a blast to be able to play a female magician, because hopefully young women who are interested in magic will see the film and maybe become inspired. * (on fiancé Jason Sudeikis) I thought, "He won't be interested in me. I'm not a contender.". He was so cool, so funny - I was such a fan of his and had always fancied his speed and his intelligence. He's a brilliant actor with a brain like lightning. I thought, "I'm not beautiful enough or his type."... He seemed to really see me, see through the bullshit. He said very few words and couldn't keep eye contact. He was so handsome, and he could dance. * (on ex-husband writer Tao Ruspoli) I had grown up with Tao; we had just drifted. I felt I had something to prove. If you fall off a horse, you get back up. I am not a quitter. I hung on for as long as possible, until it was more hurtful to stay... I'm so grateful for the pain and the heartbreak. It gave me the courage to leave and brought me to the great love of my life. References External links Category:Actresses